Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Almost every who learns through the American school systems knows all about Abraham Lincoln, elected the sixteenth President of the United States of America. President Lincoln led the states though the Civil War and supported the Union's mission to abolish slavery. Everyone (who paid attention in history class) also knows that President Lincoln was fatally shot in 1861 at Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. But how much do we know about John Wilkes Booth . . . and his almost-successful attempt at escape?

Booth, a well-known theater actor and active Confederate sympathizer, shot Abraham Lincoln while the President sat in the President's Box at Ford's Theatre alongside his wife and friends. He intricately planned the assassination attempt down to the minute, at a time when he knew the lone actor on stage would deliver a line that would set the audience into a fit of loud laughter. Almost no one heard the shot. And while many saw Booth trying to escape the theater, no one caught him. Most were preoccupied with the shock of the lifeless President, who wasn't quite willing to let the bullet lodged in his brain take his body so soon.

Experience the melodrama of one of the most important moments in American history with the images portrayed in this fascinating account of the life and death of two well-known men. Read and read-aloud, this tale is sure to capture your the attention!
Call number: YA 973.7092 SWANSON; Playaway 973.7 SWANSON (with Adult Media on the first floor); also available on CD by request through the BCCLS catalog!

Reviewed by kate the librarian